China's policies towards arms control and disarmament: From passive responding to active leading

This paper reviews the evolution of China's policies towards arms control and disarmament in the past four decades. In so doing it analyzes the major factors shaping policy development, highlights the new challenges that China now confronts in arms control and disarmament and advances a new agenda for China in the contemporary context.     

The debate on a regional arms register in Southeast Asia

Abstract

ASEAN member states are no longer opposed in principle to military information sharing and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is now actively considering ideas for new confidence‐building measures in this area. The first specific transparency measure supported by ARF was the UN Register of Conventional Arms, whose success in the region has been a result, at least in part, of its flexibility. Because of the limited scope of the UN Register, debate has continued on the possibility of a regional Register. As this debate has proceeded, however, it has become apparent that the creation of such a Register will require a number of complex and difficult issues to be resolved. What additional data should such a Register include? Who should be responsible for operating such a Register? Which countries should be included? Because of these difficulties, the prospects of a regional Register being established in the near future are rather slender. But, as they become more comfortable with the concept of transparency, there is still considerable scope for ARF members to do more to adopt regional ‘best practice’ in their replies to the main UN Register. The Register formula of framework plus flexibility could also be used as a model for the development of parallel transparency arrangements in areas other than arms transfers. The experience of the Register debate suggest that the development of concrete confidence‐building measures in the ARF region is likely to be a gradual process. Progress is possible, but is unlikely to transform levels of national openness on military affairs overnight. The main obstacles to increased transparency may prove to be domestic and political rather than international and military: demonstrating once again the way in which the confidence‐building agenda is linked to broader debates about the necessary political foundations of a secure regional order.     

The future of capitalism II

Presently editor of Studies in Comparative International Development,he is the author of many works, including the recent The Politics of Petroleum in Ecuador;and United States Policy in Latin America.     

The future of rural populism

Her many publications include The Reformation of the Holy, Religion and the Sociology of Knowledge,and The Emerging New Class: Implications for Church and Society.She edited Sociological Analysis,served as vice president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, and was president of the Religious Research Association.     

The future of the JCPOA

Following the United States' withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran is unlikely to stay in the agreement merely to maintain the moral high ground, without economic and geopolitical gains. But even if it withdraws from the deal, Tehran may judge actual advancement of its nuclear capability strategically imprudent.